Throughout my entire career I have witnessed companies ignore the needs and desires of the masses - aesthetic and otherwise. The excuse was always that it would cannibalize the high end products, and all the pundits even had me believing the most recent excuse that "there is no middle." It was the rising tide that kept everyone in the gravy, meanwhile those catering to the masses were shoveling in the money with little competition. All you have to do is take a look at the Forbes Wealthiest List. You will find the founder of IKEA at #7, the (Trader Joe's) Aldi brothers at #10 and #16, and the WalMart family at #26, 27, and 29. If their father were alive today, he would top out with Warren Buffett and give the USA 4 billionaires in the top 25 instead of just the 3 there are in the most recent list.
Bernard Arnault alone represents the luxury business at #16, his diverse LVMH group held up surprising well in 2008 given the amount of competition in that segment. What is most obvious about this list is how few Americans are on the list - anyone who tries to put the brakes on free trade will quickly discover exactly where the power/money lies. In this Olympics of Billionaires, Forbes list shows that the USA is no longer the dominant financial power.
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